Announcing the new Vijay Dinanath Chauhan

Everyone who thought that Bachchan Jr would be playing the lead role in Agneepath put your hands up — I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it has been made official — Hrithik Roshan will be stepping into Bachchan Senior’s Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, with Karan Malhotra at the helm as director.

Sources say that Hrithik was so excited to step into Amitabh’s shoes that he has decided to put Vishal Bharadwaj’s film on hold, a film which he was initially keen to star in. “Hrithik was in two minds about playing the role which Amitabh has made so famous. However, after much consideration, Hrithik has now given a go ahead to the remake of Agneepath deliberating the universal appeal of the film. He is also keen to do Vishal’s film but has, for now, put that film on backburner”.

Commenting on Roshan’s decision to work on Agneepath after wrapping up Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish instead of Vishal Bhardwaj’s next — sources provided further details,“Vishal had already spoken to Hrithik about his next film but as Hrithik will first do Agneepath, the filmmaker too decided to go ahead with another subject that he had in mind with a different actor. Vishal is willing to wait for .Hrithik to star in the film they had earlier discussed as he is keen to work on that particular subject only with Hrithik. Hrithik too had loved Vishal’s script which is why they had agreed in principle to work together. Hrithik will start Vishal’s film but at a later stage.”